Complete Results | Championship Central
ARLINGTON, Texas – The UTA men and Texas State women took home the 2017 Sun Belt Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship team titles on Sunday at Maverick Stadium on the campus of UTA.
The Mavericks entered the final day of competition tied for third place, trailing leader South Alabama by 19.5 points. Led by a pair of first-place performances by Michael Guerrero and Craig Lautenslager, another championship by Erik Martinsson and a host of high finishes, UTA totaled 98 points on the day to finish with 151, 35 points ahead of runner-up Texas State.
It was the second men's outdoor track and field title for the Mavericks as a member of the Sun Belt and first since 2014. The outdoor team title also gave the Maverick men its second "Triple Crown" as the UTA cross country/track and field program claimed all three Sun Belt championships this season.
“When you are hosting a meeting and you have a chance to win, it makes it stressful,” UTA head coach John Sauerhage said. “We just did everything we needed to do to win the meet. (The Triple Crown) is hard to get. We may never do it again. We have a lot of respect for the league. We are proud of ourselves and we are looking forward to the NCAA meet,” added Sauerhage.
Arkansas State's Jaylen Bacon was the meets high point scorer for the second consecutive season. The sophomore tallied 20.75 points as he posted the top qualifying time in both the 100 and 200-meter dash on Saturday and followed up that effort taking gold in each event. He won the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.00 seconds and raced to the 200-meter dash title with a time of 20.35 seconds. His 100-meter time was a new Maverick Stadium record while his 200-meter time was a new Sun Belt record as well as a Championship record. Both marks rank Bacon in the top ten of the NCAA this season.
“Today has been a really good day. We have been practicing the last two weeks for this. To come back and do what we practiced, a lot of times it is hard to put what you practice into a meet. When you do it, it is a really great feeling. Mentally, you just have to be ready to run. You have to take them on race at a time and try to PR. You can't do one without the other. (Plan between races) A lot of cooling down and relaxing, especially after you have a PR. (Earning Sun Belt records) feels really good. I put a lot of hard work into it and it is starting to pay off. I am nowhere near finished. It feels good to know where I am right now,” said A-State’s Jaylen Bacon.
Texas State was second in the men's team standing and followed by Louisiana and Arkansas State who tied for third.
The Mavericks earned 24 points in the second-to-last event, the men's 5,000-meters, as they went 1-2-3 in the event led by Guerrero who had two wins on the weekend.
Lautenslager picked up a win in the 1,500-meters and a second place finish in the 5,000-meters. UTA also added an additional 29 events between the men's 400-meters and the men's 110-meter hurdles.
The Bobcats claimed their first-ever Sun Belt women's outdoor track and field title. The Bobcats tallied 154.5 points, besting runner-up A-State by 36.5 points. Devina Schneider led the way for the Bobcats as she was named the women's top meet scorer. Schneider totaled 24 points over the three-day event winning the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase coupled with a second place finish in the 1,500-meters and a third place finish in the 5,000-meters.
She competed in four events in two days tallying over 11,000-meters on the track.
Arkansas State was the runner-up on the women's side followed by UTA in third.
Tramesha Hardy of Texas State tallied 21.5 points for the Bobcats while Julie Lange added an additional 22 points from the throws side to add to Texas State's point total. Abby Hani chipped in 19 points. Hardy was a triple-medalist picking up first place finishes in the 100- and 200-meters and running a leg on the third place finishing 4x400-meter relay team. Lange was also a triple-medalist earning second place finishes in the discus, hammer, and a third place finish in the shot put.
“We had an average day, to be honest. We had a lot of hiccups. We looked to score more points in certain areas that we didn't. I told the ladies that in any championship, challenges are going to happen. What makes the story beautiful is to persevere. They did a great job, even with the challenges, in finding a way to persevere and be successful today. (Winning) is a great feeling. To me, it is all about those seniors. For them in their last hurrah. Going out the way they deserve. I'm proud of our young ladies. I'm also proud of our men and the way they competed. We have a very young men's team. It was a very good weekend,” said Jody Stewart, head coach of the Bobcats.
Athletes ranked in the top 48 of their respective event in either the East or West will head on to the NCAA Preliminary qualifiers. The University of Kentucky will host the East Preliminary while the University of Texas will host the West Preliminary. Both meets will take place from May 25-27.
The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships are set for June 7-10 and will be hosted by the University of Oregon at historic Hayward Field.
Women's Final Standings
1. Texas State - 154.5 pts
2. Arkansas State - 118 pts
3. UTA - 103 pts
4. Appalachian State - 94 pts
5. South Alabama - 93.5 pts
6. Coastal Carolina - 71 pts
7. Georgia State - 65 pts
8. Troy - 44 pts
9. Little Rock - 26 pts
10. ULM - 23 pts
11. Louisiana - 21 pts
12. Georgia Southern - 6 pts
Men's Final Standings
1. UTA - 151 pts
2. Texas State - 116 pts
3. Arkansas State - 98 pts
3. Louisiana - 98 pts
5. South Alabama - 90 pts
6. Coastal Carolina - 80 pts
7. Troy - 63 pts
8. Little Rock - 55 pts
9. Appalachian State - 44 pts
10. ULM - 23 pts
Men’s Top Meet Scorer
Jaylen Bacon, Arkansas State – 20.75 points
Women’s Top Meet Scorer
Devina Schneider – 24 points